morid Correspondence
making of a candidate
By L. F. AMBURN, JR.
Hugh M. Morton of Wilmington and Unville is a super salesman of North
Carolina who is huckerstering for himself. He is traveling throughout the
state testing the political waters as a potential “dark horse” candidate for
Democratic nomination for governor in 1972. *
Hugh M. Morton, vowing in earnest a desire to “put North Carolina ba 6
together again,” hoisted his campaign balloon in Chowan County at mid-mor "
ing Tuesday— his 69th stop on his way to touch bases in the state’s 100 counties
:■ Hugh M. Morton, legal pad and pen poised, asked about a dozen influtenla.
Democrat* who represent a cross section ot
party philosophy in Chowan what they
would like included in the next governor’s
platform. He says, always carefully pre
facing , his comments with “Vfy” phrase,
when his tour of the state is complete he
will have a “people’s platform” the like of
which has never been developed in poli
tical annals.
Hugh M. Morton’s eyes brighten, his smile
widens when he reports, after a sip of iced
tea, that he has heard nor seen nothing in
visits to 68 counties previously which would
deter him from seeking the nomination in
May, 1972.
Hugh M. Morton is frank to admit that
now he is a real underdog. By Christmas
he could be third. By May he could be
second. In a second primary he could be
nominated. And in November, 1972, he
could lick the Republican opposition. All,
of course, through “hard work and good
luck.”
Hugh M. Morton is a candidate for the
Democratic nomination for Governor of
North Carolina in May, 1972. The visits
to the remaining 31 Tar Heel counties and
the results of a statewide poll by a na
tional concern won’t supply adverse feel
ings in sufficient quantities to keep him
out of the race.
Apologetic for a five-minute late arrival
to Edenton Restaurant, the soon-to-be
candidate explained his helicopter was
completely socked-in art Ahoskie earlier in
the day. This left Richard D. Dixon, a
friend who served on the USS North Ca
rolina Battleship Coiqmission with Morton
and George W. Lewis, waiting at Edenton
Municipal Airport for a helicopter that
didn’t come until time to transport its
prize passenger from Edenton to neighbor
'ing Perquimans County.
Escorted by Way land Sermons of Wash
ington, a man of political note in his own
right, Morton touched a local note by re
porting that a roommate at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had been
Dr. J. W. Davis, Jr., of Edenton, now
practicing in New Bern. He was quick to
get a political jab into the leftwingers by
saying former Gov. Terry Sanford .alleg
edly roamed with everyone »f| JfQjJh
lina. "I dply roomed with two -men, and
one of ’theft was Sdnny Davis,” he said
Continued on Page 4
Regional Meeting
The Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting
of the Children of the American Revo
lution will be held in Edenton Friday
and Saturday. The Penelope Barker
Society, C.A.R., will be host with the
N. C. State Society.
About 100 members are expected
from the District of Columbia, Mary
land, Virginia, West Virginia and North
Carolina.
National and regional officers will
include Jane Elizabeth Hardy of Strat
ford, Conn., national president; Mrs.
Robert Hudgins of Charlotte, senior
national president; Joe Mathias of
Lynchburg, Va., regional president; and
Mrs. J. Marion Bailey of South Charles
ton, W. Va., senior regional president.
Mrs. R. Jack Grant of Statesville,
president, will head the state delega
tion.
Activities Friday will include a swim
party at 4 P. M., at the Eden Motel and
a Coke party at 9 P. M., at the home
of Betty B. Dixon.
Saturday’s activities will be at the
Chowan Golf and Country Club begin
ning with a business session at 9 A. M.,
followed by a luncheon at 12:30.
In the afternoon the group will tour
Historic Edenton and take waterfront
boat tours.
Continued on Pago 4
Car Divided By Tree; Counts Filed
A two-car accident on Paradise Road
Sunday afternoon made a basket case
out of a 1965 Ford Mustang and result
ed in three charges being lodged against
the driver of the second vehicle. Dam
age was estimated at $1,700.
* The Mustang was being operated by
Willie Joe Cedi Leary, 27-year-old Ne
gro, of Edenton. Leary was pinned
underneath the back section of the car
after it struck a tree and was sliced
into two pieces. He is a patient at
Chowan Hospital.
James Sharpe, 28-year-old Negro, al
so of Edenton, was identified as the
driver of a 1907 Chevrolet involved in
the 2::30 P. M., mishap, Just north of
Edenton town limits.
State Trooper R. H. Allen has charged
Sharpe with hit and run driving, mak
ing a false report of a stolen vehicle,
and driving after his license had been
m/\ ,iaWa/I .*
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The trooper stated that both vehicles
were
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Hugh M. Morton
Feeder Pig Sale
Rule Is Relaxed
RALEIGH Beginning on August 1,
feeder pigs sold in North Carolina were
no longer required to be vaccinated with
Hog Cholera Anti-serum at sales. They
must continue to be tagged for identifi
cation and be inspected by a veterinar
ian at the market.
The vaccination has cost 85 cents per
pig to be administered. This fee will
no longer be required, but the amount
has been lowered to 10 cents per head
by most markets in the state to cover
the cost, mainly labor, of the continued
tagging and record keeping which will
be required by state and federal regu
lations.
The 10-cent fee was agreed on by
representatives of most markets in the
state in a meeting with John Parker,
livestock marketing specialist with the
N. C. Department of Agriculture and
Dr. David Spruill, N. C. State Univer
sity Extension Animal Husbandry Spe
cialist.
“This will represent quite a savings
for feeder pig producers,” said Parker.
“The price of pigs has been so low
recently that the 75-cent savings just
may represent his profit.”
The markets who have agreed to the
10-cent charge are Rocky Mount, Dunn,
Wallace, Chadbourn, Norwood, Fayette
ville, Rich Square, Statesville, Hills
borough, Greensboro and Asheville.
Board Meet Nil
Edenton-Chowan Board of Education
went through a lengthy no official ac
tion session Monday night. They lack
ed a quorum.
The regular monthly session began
at 8 P. M., in the conference room on
the third floor of the County Office
Building. Chairman Eugene Jordan,
Morris Small and Mrs. Emily G. Am
burn were the only members who answ
ered the roll call.
The members spent more than two
hours discussing important school busi
ness but no action could be taken be
cause of the lack of a quorum. (Four
members of a seven-member board).
out of control and struck a tree. The
Sharpe car then continued until it stall
ed, according to the investigation.
Sharpe allegedly telephoned Edenton
Police Department to report that his
car had been stolen.
'i,
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Pj^
Part One
sulilic ararie
Volunteer Service
Recognition for voluneer service is
not always forthcoming. But were it
not for volunteers throughout the com
munity, some of the services of public
agencies and organizations along the
‘ Public Parade would go wanting.
\ The volunteer services offered Cho-
Hospital by the Hospital Auxiliary
saved the community untold thous
ands of dollars over the years. All the
1 work, however, hasn’t been
? throughout the auxiliary.
have just learned of Mrs. Alwin
2f\ie’s contribution to the renovation
,j: (ram now underway at the hospital’s
unit B (the old hospital) where care
is provided for extended term patients.
Mrs. Schle, a resident of Arrowhead,
wanted to contribute to the community.
She volunteered her sewing talent to
the hospital. During the past couple
of months she has stitched up drapes
for the extended care unit. And they
add greatly to the overall renovation
project.
llie community should be grateful
to the Mrs. Schles in the area. You
might say they are the desert of the
community.
Former Mayor Living In Past
Elsewhere in today’s newspaper is a
letter to Edenton’s municipal officials
from former mayor Leroy H. Haskett.
Mr. Haskett made a copy of the letter
available to The Chowan Herald.
It is difficult for us to believe that a
former chief executive of the Town of
Edenton could be so misinformed on
some things a/id so status quo in his
thinking on others. In the past we
have had the impression that Mr. Has
kett was a progressive, rather than a
retrogressive. His letter has caused us
to readjust our thinking.
Writing about sidewalk construction
in the downtown area, he states no
mention was made about labor which
will equal the cost of materials. It was
explained at Town Council meeting last
month that the only labor not Included
was for tearing up existing sidewalks.
This won’t be much of a chore since
the sidewalks are in such a deteriorated
state. Also, the work can be done by
street department personnel who are
employed year around.
No, Edenton doesn’t have a Rocke
feller or the like. Thank goodness for
it! What we do have is a majority of
citizens willing to roll up their sleeves
and go to work rather than stick their
head in the sand. We have ingenuity
and imagination. With the aid of a
Rockefeller or-ttwiike Edenton coutt"
be turned into a town as stereotyped as
Williamsburg, and God forbit it to hap
pen.
The former mayor isn’t at all familiar
with public housing. All it has cost the
Town of Edenton in more than three
years of development is the paper it
took to write a resolution establishing
Edenton Housing Authority. When
sites were selected the local authority
took particular care in picking ones
where water and sewer was available
or in the planning stage.
Property owned by the housing au
thority is exempt from taxes. How
ever, the authority makes a payment
to the municipality in lieu of taxes to
cover the cost of essential services, such
as police and fire protection and garb
age collection.
Also, the local authority argued with
federal officials in Atlanta for eight
months before gaining approval of a
total electric project in order that the
town could profit from the sale of elec
tricity. What the town is getting at
absolutely no cost is 100 units of public
housing at a cost of nearly $2-million
and the electric business which will be
Continued on Pago 4
Rain, Rain, Etc.
It didn’t rain Sunday, Monday or
Tuesday. That almost set a record for
July when Chowan County experienced
more successive rainy days than in the
memory of many citizens.
One of the heaviest rains to fall on
Chowan County dumped 2.11 inches of
water on Edenton in a 30-minute pe
riod last Wednesday, according to J. H.
Conger, Sr., local weather observer.
There was considerable flooding but
little damage reported.
Conger also measured water on July
2,6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27,
29, 30 and 31.
Part Two
THE CHOWAN HERALD
Volume XXXVU—No. 29. Single Copy 10 Cents
Edenton, Chowan County, North Carolina, Thursday August 5, 1971
State Asks Refund
County Is Overpaid
An error in reporting salaries for re
imbursement has resulted in an over
payment in excess of $12,500 in state
and federal funds to Chowan County.
The Department of Social Services has
been notified to repay the money.
Chowan County commissioners dis
cussed the problem at length Monday
morning with Social Services Director
Robert Hendrix. Later they approved
a repayment plan offered by Mrs. Pansy
A. Elliott, county accountant, which
Holidays Set
Official holidays for Chowan County
employees were established Monday by
county commissioners.
During the 1971-72 fiscal year the
following holidays will be observed:
July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving,
two days at Christmas, New Year’s Day,
and Easter Monday. Employees will
be granted two days of petty leave to
be supervised by the department heads.
Stricken from the list of county em
ployee holidays was Veterans Day and
Confederate Memorial Day.
"iiv fv.f 1 , .
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Samuel Johnston's Grave— The fence around the cemetery at
Hayes Plantation frames the grave of Samuel Johnston, North
Carolina’s first U. S. Senator who built Hayes in Edenton.
Samuel Johnston: Famous Chowanian
By H. G. JONES, Director
N. C. Dopt. Archives and History
RALEIGH (AP) Samuel Johnston,
first trustee of the University of North
Carolina, the state’s first United States
senator and its governor from 1787 to
1789, was elected president of the Con
tinental Congress in 1781. But his fel
low delegates were informed the follow
ing day that he declined to serve.
He was the subject of recent atten
tion in the nationally syndicated news
paper feature “Ripley’s Believe it or
Not,” because of his supposedly short
tenure as president of the congress.
Johnston was born in Dundee, Scot
land, but moved as a child with his fam
ily to “Onslow Province,” North Caro
lina. His older brother, Gabriel, had
preceded the family to this country
and served as governor of the colony
from 1734 to 1752.
Johnston’s political career began in
would spread over the next 24 months.
Hendrix said the excess reimburse
ment began in February, 1970, when
forms for reporting salaries changed.
He explained that when the reimburse
ment was approved in Raleigh he as
sumed the reporting was accurate.
Commissioner N. J. George called it
an “honest error” which hadn’t cost the
county money. Other commissioners
agreed after Hendrix and Mrs. Elliott
assured them that employees in the
department had not received salaries
over and above what was budgeted.
Mrs. Elliott said the reimbursement
had built up a surplus in the depart
ment which now exceeds $17,000. She
said some of the surplus was budgeted
for fiscal 1971-72.
She then proposed that the county
repay the over reimbursement to the
state at the rate of SSOO per month.
This way, she explained, it would not
be necessary to amend the budget at
this time.
Hendrix said there was sufficient
money in the 1970-71 budget to repay
the money. “Now if will be more diffi
cult since we have gone into another
Continued on Pago 4
1759 with election to the General As
sembly. Other highlights of his record
prior to the Continental Congress in
cluded service as clerk of court in the
Edenton district, deputy naval officer
of the province, delegate to the first
four provincial congresses (he was
president of the third and fourth), and
senator in the General Assembly.
Johnston is also noted for his role
in the government’s reaction to the Reg
ulator movement, a series of violent
pre-revolutionary protests by some Pied
mont citizens against the eastern-domi
nated government. When the Regula
tors in 1770 broke up the court in Hills
borough, Johnston led a group in the
assembly in enacting sweeping legis
lation to remove many of the causes of
discontent. But he also introduced a
bill which came to be known as the
“Bloody Act,” under which Gov. Tryon
suppressed the uprising by force. It
gave the accused Regulator leaders 60
days to surrender and stand trial or else
be considered guilty, declared outlaws
and shot on sight.
Continued on Page 4
New Kindergarten
A fourth kindergarten will operate in
Edenton-Cbowan Schools during the
coming school term. Edenton-Chowan
Board of Education has decided to have
a pay kindergarten for five-year-olds.
Interested parents should call 482-
4436 and leave their name and address.
A planning meeting is scheduled next
week at which time schedules and costs
will be discussed and determined.
ESEA holds kindergartens at White
Oak and Walker schools. EIC will have
a Headstart program for five-year-olds
at Walker School.
, - 1 V